MarvelDC Crossover 2
by Mandalore Jaig
Summary: Wraith is back in the Marvel universe, but he has no time to rest. Shift has been sent to be trained by Wraith, but his training is hurried as Dormammu begins to attack the Earth. Wraith must scrounge through multiple realities to come up with something to stop the one thing he's not good at, magic.


Marvel Universe Crossover 2

"Adam Kriticos, do you know why you're here?" Shift always hated talking to Superman. His stature and demeanor always made him feel small, inadequate. And that feeling always made him react badly.

"I should have killed him and tossed his body into another dimension. That way none of us would be going through with this sham of a trial." Superman's jaw dropped as the casual tone Shift was using to discuss murder.

"Was that a joke?" Shift shrugged his shoulders. Superman's eyebrows went up. "This isn't a trial. It's a membership review. And things are not looking good for you."

"All I did was apprehend a supervillian."

"And you beat Prometheus into a bloody pulp. Broke most of his ribs, jaw, and three out of four limbs." Batman ticked off the list from memory. Shift did get a bit uncomfortable there.

"Let's not forget he did it on camera." remarked the Question. "All of us have injured supervillains, by accident or on purpose. But having a mistake like this held up in the media like it is is a compound problem." Shift knew this was how it would go. He had let Prometheus get him mad enough to make him forget the consequences of his actions. But he would chew broken glass before he apologized to Superman for anything. And the Man of Steel would not give him any slack unless he did apologize.

"The whole cause of this seems to be a lack of discipline and self control. The same problems everyone goes through while they're a teenager." Batman said in a clinical voice. Then he looked over at the Flash. "And possibly for some time after that. The point is that Adam is an asset. I will not vote to throw him out, especially right now with the Green Lanterns away fighting a war."

"Then what do you think we should do?" Asked Superman. His voice was a little condescending. Shift guessed that he didn't like being overruled by Batman.

"I'll send him to be trained. I have a friend who should be able to handle Adam." Shift didn't like the way Batman was talking. Especially when he implied that his friend was more powerful than him. Powerful enough to subdue him if it became necessary. That narrowed the list of trainers pretty drastically.

"And who would that be?" asked the Question, clearly unhappy at being left out of the loop.

"Wraith. The telekinetic who helped fight Galactus a few months ago. He's trained some of the Teen Titans as well as a few of our younger members. I believe his assistance would be very effective in this case." Batman was looking at Shift, but to the teen it seemed like Batman's focus was on something entirely different.

" Then that leaves you with two options Adam. You can either receive training, at no cost to you, or you leave the League." Superman said. "What's it going to be?" Shift did not have overly fond memories of Wraith, especially when the man had flown off to fight Galactus and left him to deal with the Brainiac drones. At the time he hadn't minded, but he hadn't even been able to see the Spectre scare Galactus out of the Universe. That he'd missed something so epic gnawed at him. And that his plans to takeover the team Wraith had trained had been a colossal failure. Without the telekinetic to keep them together they all went to their own cities and teams. Shift couldn't even get them to meet with him, let alone find a way to blackmail them into helping him hunt down former Cadmus board members. Raven was the only one who had contacted him. And she had adamantly refused to help his mission. That she offered her assistance as an empath had come as a blow to his confidence that he was doing the right thing. It essentially amounted to saying "you need counseling".

"I'll do it. When do I start?" Shift said, with only a moderate amount of resignation in his voice.

"In about 2 hours. Get packed and I'll take you to Wraith's new Gotham offices." Shift's started for a moment. For Batman to have this ready he must have called Wraith days ago. In other words, he'd been planning on sending Shift there no matter what happened.

Long story short, Shift had packed a single bag of clothes and toiletries and walked to the teleporter. He and Batman were sent into the Narrows. More specifically, a medium sized building surrounded by a 12 foot solid brick wall covered in graffiti. But through the small openings in the gates they could see that the building had been heavily renovated. Nothing obvious of course. But it's construction was obviously strategic. The sod hadn't fully grown in over the weapons platforms on the lawn. But it was the best money could buy for such a new base of operations. A few more months and no one would be able to tell it apart from the surrounding buildings. There was an intercom on the wall, only barely visible in the night. The rain had lent a dampness to Fall in Gotham. Shift was appreciative of it. Rain dulled and erased scents from the air. And to his canine level olfactory sense of smell that was a great mercy. But it also made him half blind. He didn't notice the guards posted a block and a half away.

Batman pushed the call button and was immediately answered. "You are expected. Please come in. The gate opened and they walked in. Both Batman and Shift stayed on the cement path that led to the front of the building. They were met at the door by a young woman in gothic clothing.

"Mr. Wraith is waiting for you in his office. Please follow me." Her words had no emotion in them at all. But they didn't quite sound mechanical. Her skin was pale and her eyes were a bright red. That set off all kind of warning bells with Shift. If Batman felt so much as a twinge of surprise he didn't let on. The girl led them through the building at a quick pace but not hurried. Shift was getting increasingly nervous with their guide. He could feel a vibration in the concrete floor as she walked. When they reached a steel security door without any windows they stopped. The girl knocked.

"Come in." Wraith's voice came from the other side of the door. They walked into a half furnished office with no windows but a significant number of computer screens. He was doing something complicated with a hologram computer system next to his desk. He tapped an icon and the system went offline. "I've just finished looking through your file Adam." Wraith said. "Impressive, in more ways than one. You'll be with me for no less than 2 months and you will obey every direct order given to you by me or anyone I designate. These are my terms. If you feel you can't comply with them I will have Gothic Lolita show you out." The way he said it made it clear that Shift would be forcibly removed if the answer was no. It took a little while before Shift answered.

"I give you my word that I will abide by your rules while I am in this program." Shift sounded formal for the first time since Wraith had met him. Batman turned to leave and Lolita shut the door behind him. "So, what now?" Shift asked. Wraith simply looked at him, waiting. "What now, sir?" Shift said, reluctance in his tone.

"Now, we go into the pocket dimension I use for training. Your two months will be over in a matter of days. The dimension is fully stocked with living quarters, food, ect." He pressed a button under his desk and a panel slid away from one of the walls. The three of them stepped into the rather large elevator and Wraith punched in a command code. The cab lurched down suddenly and picked up speed. After a few second Shift felt a shudder run through him, then a wash of heat. Then they stopped. When they stepped out they were in a place that felt distinctly different. The building they were in was built like an enclosed Olympic stadium with several smaller buildings dotting the landscape. The air was almost vacant of scents, even to Shift. Wraith showed him around then took him to a field.

"Normally I use a dojo setting for hand to hand combat training. However, given your level of strength and that of your trainer as well as your tendency to cause property damage. I thought this would be better." Wraith motioned to Gothic Lolita, the 5 foot girl who had unnerved Shift just minuted earlier. She leapt at him, clearing the 12 feet between them in less than 1 second. Shift put up his arms to block. She hit him with the full 500lbs that she weighed at about 40mph. His arms didn't do a thing to slow her down, let alone stop her. She hit and grabbed on, her weight and momentum putting them a foot and a half into the ground. The impact shook Shift up, but it didn't make him lose his senses. She tried to punch him but he twitched his head to the side. He got his legs under him and kicked her off with both feet. She only moved about 5 feet back. Shift changed into a mountain lion and pounced. He caught her right arm in his teeth. He set a paw at her throat, claws out enough to snag on her skin, but not break through. She hit him with a left cross that sent him flying again. He heard Wraith yell to him. But it took him a moment to piece the words together.

"I seriously doubt you can hurt her. Holding back would be foolish. Because if you don't defend yourself she will hurt you." Shift changed from mountain lion back to human. He reached for the switchblade inside his jacket. It was gone. He flicked his gaze toward his opponent, the girl who was much more than she seemed. His weapon was on the ground behind her. That was bad. That she was walking toward him was worse. So he let the lycanthrope curse make him stronger, more durable. He got to his feet, eyes burning gold and claws forming on the tips of his fingers. He felt everything slow down as his reaction time increased. Then he poured his own magic into the mix, further strengthening himself. The combination was potent and gave him something close to a high. He was no longer afraid, no longer hesitant. His fangs showed visibly in his grin. Then he charged in, faster than Lolita but still not as strong. Or as durable, he realized. He punched her square in the face, sending her skidding across the ground. But his wrist broke when the blow connected. The pain barely registered but the sudden looseness made him take notice. His regenerative abilities made short work of such a minor injury. She was barely scuffed by the blow.

The fight played out over a period of 30 minutes with both combatants taking damage. Wraith watched the whole fight, sorting through the readings Gothic Lolita was sending him. Tissue density, impact energy, ect. He had to sort through the other data she was sending him, the reflection of light through blood droplets in the air, the distorted sound of breaking bones which was remarkably like thunder. And the swirl of chaos magic that came off of Shift in wisps, sending odd feedback through Lolita's mechanical senses. He also watched his newest trainee, evaluated his fighting style, physical fluidity, improvisation. The kid fought on pure instinct, not much thought actually entered into the equation. He had no real style of fighting. Wraith knew then that he wouldn't make it far on brawn alone. He would have to gain more insight into the other side of Shift's abilities. The side that dealt with energy and magic and whatever it was that gave him that power in the first place. When Lolita had finished beating Shift into the ground he had her pick the teenager up and carry him to the med building. She did as she was ordered but halfway there Shift woke up and started yelling at her to put him down.

"Either doggie stays quiet or he doesn't get a treat." she said, with the slightest shadow of humor in her voice.

"Did-Did you just call me "doggie"?". Shift asked. He was completely flabbergasted by her attitude toward him. She was treating him like he was an errant pet. Most people looked at him like he was a monster after he'd transformed. And he'd always believed them to be right. Wraith talked with him for a while while he was in the med building. He hadn't needed bandages or medicine. But he had consumed about 8 lbs of raw meat in under 30 minutes.

"Well, as a physical fighter you do have room for improvement. But I don't think you're really utilizing your full powers by boosting your physical strength. Your abilities are magic based, correct?" Wraith asked, trying not to let the eating habits of his student make him nauseous. Shift stopped eating long enough to gulp down the food in his mouth and answer.

"Yeah, I'm linked to a mystic entity. I also have a tower full of artifacts and arcane knowledge." He ripped a chunk of meat off a 3 lb roast he had in his hand. His fangs sheared through the meat with ease. Wraith had his wrist computer automatically updating Shift's JLA file as they talked. Wraith was finding it hard to believe that Shift could be a mage with such vast resources.

"And how did that come to be?"

"Dunno. Figured out I could change shape when I was 8. Went to the Tower when I was 12-"

"Hold on. The tower?"Wraith was still recording the conversation but he had a feeling he was going to really appreciate the video that Lolita was providing shortly. "Can you take us there?" Shift was still engrossed in his meal, answering almost automatically.

"Sure. Just give me a second." When he finished his roast he picked up his tattered rag of a sweatshirt. He muttered a few words and held out his right hand. A portal appeared in front of him, magic leaking through like inky mist. "But I wouldn't go in there if I were you." And just like that the mist tried to reach out and grab Wraith. It was repulsed by the telekinetic quickly enough. But that brief mental contact with it revealed an intelligence behind the mist. And it was very territorial. And very much like Adam Kriticos, the young man who had created the portal.

"Allow me safe passage into this world." Shift's eyebrows went up.

"H-how did you know I could-" he stopped talking and he held up his hand, palm out. A small mote of light drifted from his hand and settled over Wraith's left shoulder.

"And for Gothic Lolita." Shift obeyed. He scowled at the command but he obeyed. They passed through the portal and proceeded to the entrance of a white tower of incredible size. The outside has been bereft of markings or designs. The interior was another matter. The first room on the first floor looked like a 19th century library. Shift led them through that room into another. The style of each room got progressively older as the went further up the tower. A dozen rooms later they were in a bare stone room with large curtains covering the walls. Wraith had taken extensive video footage of the rooms via Gothic Lolita's memory archives. In every room there had been an abundance of magical writings and symbols. There were none in this room.

"What is this room for?" Wraith asked.

"The Room of Purging." The old arrogance and self-satisfaction was back in his voice. "It's possibly the only place in existence where I can regain the ability to do magic."

"I thought you already could do magic?" Lolita asked. Shift spat on the ground.

"That was just channeling energy and projection. Cadmus had a witch and she cursed me. I can't speak spells, create circles, enspell objects or anything more complicated than just flailing around with energy. In this room I can make the curse take physical form and separate it from me. I need you two to speak the room's trigger words and kill the curse manifestation." That all sounded far too straightforward to Wraith. That wasn't the way Shift approached his problems. Head on wasn't the way he thought. There had to be more to this.

"What aren't you telling me?" Wraith asked, eyes scanning the room for anything that stood out.

"A great many things. But nothing that will put your life in any obvious danger."

"Why not have Doctor Fate or Zatanna remove the curse?" Wraith could neither see or sense anything dangerous about the room. But his instincts were almost never wrong. He'd had a similar feeling when he'd first met Sebastian Shaw, the Black King of the Hellfire club.

"They refused. Wouldn't even tell me why. So, are you game?" Shift looked eager, almost hungry.

"Yes. But I need you to do something for me first. Give me the knife you tried to pull on Lolita. It's not that I don't trust you. Actually, that's exactly it. I don't trust that you've told me everything and having a powerful magic weapon on my side will put my mind a little more at ease." Shift pulled the weapon from inside his sweatshirt and tossed it to Wraith. He opened the knife with a familiar flick of his wrist. "Ready." Shift Drew one of the curtains in the room aside, revealing a ring of text in some esoteric language.

"Need me to translate?" Shift asked.

"No, I can read it just fine." Shift, confused as to how Wraith knew an extinct language like Etruscan, placed his hands on the markings. Wraith started speaking the trigger words, and in English no less.

"You who wear the crown of life

pull yourself from the cold and night.

Fire that cuts the dark like a knife

reveal the ink with burning light.

Living powers of dark and day,

on opposite sides of the world must stay."

The markings lit up moved until they had flowed down Shift's arms. Then the screaming started. But it wasn't Shift, and it wasn't even remotely human. Dark fluid oozed from Shift's arms and chest and into the wall along with the symbols. It took shape with remarkable speed into something that made little structural sense. It was a jumbled mess of fur, bone, and mouths. Those mouths roared in rage and pain. A far more primal sound than any human being could ever produce. Wraith didn't hesitate for a moment. He reached out with his mind and tried to crush the beast. But it had a mantle of power that made his mental grip slip over it. He tried to reach inside and damage it but he experienced the same effect. Lolita rushed the beast, which was easily a dozen times her size. But when she punched it it's fangs shattered and dark blood flew. But to a creature that size the girl was just a minor irritation. Wraith looked down at the knife, wishing it was a weapon more suited to the task. The knife became a massive broadsword almost before Wraith had finished the thought.

He sent the sword at the beast with his mind, the weapon reaching several hundreds of miles per hour before it plunged deep into what might have been the creature's chest. If the wound hurt the creature it gave no indication. But the weapon had done more than just punch a hole in the creature's body. It dispelled the mantle of power that had protected it from his psionic attacks. Now the creature was completely open to attack and Wraith didn't waste the opportunity. His mind tore the thing apart from the inside out. Instead of collapsing to the ground the beast started sublimating. It's flesh became smoke, then a thin mist, then faded away entirely. The broadsword clattered to the ground.

"Did you see where he went?" Lolita asked. Wraith noticed then, that Shift was no longer in the room. He hadn't moved since he put his hands on the wall, Lolita's motion sensors and his own combat experience would have noted the movement. So where was the boy?

"I'm right behind you." The words were muffled, like they were being spoken through cloth. Wraith's head jerked behind him, and all he saw was his shadow. The black silhouette darkened and Shift climbed out, blackness clinging to him. "One of the few spells I learned before Cadmus caught me. Shadow walking." He staggered forward once he was standing on stone again. Wraith caught him. Shift weighed far less at this point than when he had entered the tower. The curse beast had borrowed flesh as well as power when it took form. It had left Shift weak and depleted.

From that point on his training progressed in periods of frustration and sudden success. But even though he sparred with Gothic Lolita every day very few of his breakthroughs were in the realm of physical combat. His skill in magic was growing rapidly, almost frighteningly fast. To Wraith it appeared as an obsession, the way he disregarded food and sleep in his reading of spell books. But he followed Wraith's every order to the letter, if not the actual intent. About 2 and a half months into his training Wraith was alerted to a dire situation on Earth. His Earth, not Shift's.

Wraith was reading a report and watching footage in his office. After fifteen minutes or so he called his secretary. "Debra, could you please get Dr. Strange on the secure line. Tell him it's urgent."

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you."

A few moments later his phone rang. He picked it up. "Stephen, we have a problem."

"Yes, I have sensed something was amiss."

"Warren Traveler has resurfaced. He has attacked another one of my facilities."

"Did he acquire anything?"

"No. After the last incident I had some safeguards installed. All of the magic items were sent to other dimensions. He may be able to find them still, but it will take longer."

"I see."

"I can't just keep hiding these things or moving them. He has to be taken down."

"And you want me to do it."

"You're the Sorcerer Supreme. None of my employees have the magical abilities to stand up to him. If you don't stop him, he will eventually acquire everything I have, and then you might not be able to stop him."

"I cannot."

"What?"

"Dormammu is trying to enter this reality. I am currently holding him at bay, but if I expel much of my magic in fighting Traveler, I may not have enough to stop him. Traveler is not the largest threat."

"I see...well, remember Strange, you owe me when I stop him from eliminating you." Wraith hung up.

"I hate magic." He said to himself. Then he paged his secretary. "Debra, transfer me to Forge please."

"Yes, sir."

"Wraith?"

"How are they coming?" Wraith was getting impatient. He didn't like losing.

"It's a little slow going, but I should have some prototypes ready in a few hours. Magic isn't my specialty, you know."

"Yeah, but you can wield it, and tech is your specialty. I just need to stop one guy."

"One very powerful guy... but these should at least even the odds a little."

"Good. Let me know when you've got something."

"Will do."

He hung up.

Wraith summoned his team to a conference room. They consisted of Gothic Lolita, Alec Dalton, Lorne Lincoln, and Milf. On a screen he was showing them what could be best described as chaos. It had shown a bunker like building. There was a flash and it was suddenly being ripped apart.

"This is one of my secure holding facilities in Universe 1429237." Wraith rewound the video and slowed it down. The initial flash was caused by a man appearing above the facility. He motioned with a hand and the roof exploded. He descended into the cloud of debris and moments later reappeared with several objects in tow.

"What did he take, sir?" asked Alec.

"Several magical artifacts I was storing for the Avengers, Dr. Strange, etc. I was supposed to be keeping them safe, somewhere no one could find, much less enter. He did both." Wraith was irritated.

"Who is he?" asked Lorne.

"His name is Warren Traveler. He was the Sorcerer Supreme during the House of M fiasco. Using the energy readings we got off of this attack. I was able to prepare for the next one. We were able to get some better footage and get a match to his face." Wraith keyed for the other video. He paused it after a moment. It was a still shot of a middle aged man, looking rather ragged. He had a ball of energy around him as weapon emplacements fired at him.

"Sir, we don't have the capabilities to stop him." Gothic Lolita had plugged herself into a data port at the table and was analyzing the information.

"You're right. You don't. I don't have any magic users to call on for this. Lolita, patch the information to the other Livewires. You're all going in once he resurfaces. I'll try and cook something else up for him too. Alec, you might try a telepathic attack. Perhaps a combination of attacks will do some good. Any other questions?" Everyone shook their head. "Good. Get ready then. As soon as he hits us again, you'll be teleporting out." After a moment he said, "Oh, and in my travels I keep running into this man with a blue box who claims to be a physician. Stay away from him." They looked at him strangely, but nodded and filed out.

Wraith went to his training center in the pocket dimension. He wasn't alone this time, Shift noticed. There was a beautiful woman in a maroon business suit. Shift had been practicing his magic. He was trying to get faster at casting spells and working on his concentration. Drones would attack him while he tried to keep his focus on his shield and attacks.

"Computer, deactivate simulation," said Wraith.

"Acknowledged," came a response. Shift relaxed and dropped his shield as the surviving drones went back to their compartments, and the nanobots got to repairing the destroyed ones. He then walked over to Wraith and the woman.

"Shift, this is Wanda Maximoff." He then turned to Wanda. "This is Shift. He'll be your trainee." Shift could sense an odd magic aura on her. It was faint and seemed defused. Wraith turned back to Shift. "She's an expert on Chaos magic. She'll be giving you a crash course."

Shift looked at him quizzically. "Is there a hurry, sir?"

"Possibly. There's a threat that I am trying to deal with. He might threaten this facility." Another man walked in behind Wraith. "Ah, good," said Wraith without turning around. "Are they completed, Forge?"

"Yes, and I'm pretty sure they will work. Wanda was able to give me some pointers on the chaos magic," Forge said while walking up. He was carrying what looked like oversized metal gloves.

"Good." He looked at Shift. "These gauntlets will augment your magical powers. They will also change size with you. But understand this, I don't like magic. It's too easy to get corrupted by it." He stepped closer until he was centimeters from Shift's face. The room suddenly got very cold as if the air had stopped moving, and Shift found that he couldn't move. Even his eyelids were being held in place. Wraith's voice had dropped much lower and he only spoke loud enough for Shift to hear. "So if I catch a whiff of you using the dark arts, I will personally end you, League or no League." Wraith looked hard at him for a few more moments. That was when Shift realized that his heart wasn't beating and he was unable to breathe. Then Wraith backed away, and released him.

Shift took a deep breath and blinked a few times. He had seen how powerful Wraith was before, but he hadn't known that he had such minute control, and without showing any visible effort. It was unnerving, even for him. Wraith continued as if nothing had happened. "Ms. Maximoff will be showing you the more practical applications of magic. There's only so much you can learn from books."

Suddenly a shuriken came flying at Shift's face. He dived to avoid it. "And Mr. Wilson will be teaching you advanced combat." He paused. "Please don't do that again Mr. Wilson, or your paycheck will reflect my displeasure."

Shift rose to see the shuriken floating in the air, just in front of where he'd been standing. It was still spinning. It suddenly flew back behind Wraith to the open doorway. There was a yelp of pain as a man wearing a red and black body stocking came walking in. He was now nursing a cut on his shoulder as he cleaned off the bloodied shuriken and replaced it on his bandolier. He walked up to Shift. "Hiya! The name's Deadpool." He leaned in confidentially, "What do you know about fighting GI Joes?"

It was the most annoying voice Shift had ever heard. He looked from Deadpool to Wraith. Shift could have sworn he saw a smile as Wraith turned to go. "I'll leave you to your duties. Ms. Maximoff, you're in charge."

Deadpool began to whine. "But I never get to be in charge in these…short stories? Fan fics? Collaborations? What's the right term?"

"Ignore what he says," commanded Wanda. "He's mostly insane, but he's one of the best hand to hand combatants in the world. And if you can cast spells while he talks and attacks you, you can concentrate through anything."

Shift released a small sigh. It was going to be a long day.

Wraith left the training compound. Isaac came up from behind to walk even with him. "I want you to continue to keep an eye on Shift. I still don't trust him. Also watch out for Wanda. She's still not completely stable after the House of M incident. Although I'm not sure she ever was stable. If things start falling apart, let me know immediately. Wanda isn't to her previous power levels yet, but who knows if or when that will change. I don't need her changing reality again. Last time was…inconvenient."

"Understood, sir." Wraith left Isaac for the teleporter station.

It didn't take long for Traveler to reappear. He was determined. Within hours the alarms were going off in the ready room. The team had been sleeping in shifts. They roused themselves and grabbed their gear. Alec dialed in the appropriate universe and they charged through the gate.

Wraith was watching it all from his war room. Traveler had appeared just like before. This time the weapon emplacements were stronger. Wraith had guessed where Traveler would strike next. The shielding was also much improved. This base was a space station. It had 360 degree coverage.

Wraith had used nanobots to quickly build some added defenses. Concealed launch bays opened and three Nimrod-class Sentinels were released. As they flew out to engage Traveler he released his first attack. The shield shuddered under the assault, but held.

The base defenses and Sentinels began returning fire. There was no visible effect on Traveler. Wraith was analyzing the energy outputs of the weapons and calculating the minimal strength of Traveler's shield, when his team arrived.

They were heavily armed. This was no infiltration mission. All of them had plasma cannons courtesy of designs that Wraith had acquired of Cable's weapons. They came out guns blazing. They spread out to make themselves harder targets. There was very little cover on the station itself, and absolutely none in the space surrounding it. But they made the best of it that they could.

Alec attacked Traveler psychically. This caused Traveler to glance in his direction, but little else. Social Butterfly attacked with her force fields to try and shut down Traveler's brain. This wasn't having much affect either. His shield was interfering.

Alec touched his com. "Sir, this isn't going well." Traveler fired an energy blast nearby him, taking out yet another one of the station's guns. The Nimrod Sentinels were basically out of commission. Their nanobots would reconstruct them, but too slowly. All that was left was their heads.

"I see that." Wraith turned to Cornfed who was helping with organize the Livewire's more effectively. "Analysis?"

"Everyone will be dead and the devices taken in less than one minute, forty six seconds," he answered emotionlessly.

"Sound the recall then, and retrieve the devices. Send any wounded to the appropriate facility, medical or repair."

"Understood."

Wraith walked out of the room. Cornfed was fast and efficient, thanks to being an android, but he also had a good handle on strategy. He was competent enough to get the team out alive.

Wraith made his way to the teleporter. He had one more play before he was forced to admit defeat.

He reappeared at his main pocket dimension and walked into the training facility. Shift was putting the gauntlets through their paces while Deadpool and drones attacked him. Wraith noted that Shift had already improved his hand to hand combat and magic skills, as he transformed through a multitude of different animals while shielding himself from energy attacks and firing off magical blasts of his own.

"Computer: End simulation, and begin preparations," Wraith said.

"Simulation terminated. Rebuild in progress," said an emotionless voice. The drones went back into the walls, which themselves then began to morph and change.

"What's going on?" asked Wanda.

Wraith turned to her. "We are about to be attacked. I would prefer it Ms. Maximoff, if you would return to the New York offices, for the time being. You may provide advice from there."

She nodded and walked off, the slight heels of her shoes clicking on the floor. "Who's attacking?...sir." added Shift.

"His name is Traveler. He seems to be on par with Doctor Fate, if that gives you any idea as to how much trouble we are in." Wraith seemed to be extremely calm. Shift's jaw went a little loose.

"Am I excused?" asked Deadpool raising his hand, and looking towards the ceiling.

"You may leave. My secretary has your check for you in New York. If we survive this, I may have need of your services again," answered Wraith, ignoring Deadpool's antics.

"Alright. I'll keep my schedule open. Just don't call when Golden Girls is on. I never miss an episode." Deadpool walked away towards the teleporter.

Wraith turned towards Forge. "You are free to leave as well. I don't think there's much point in you staying. Technological attacks have not been useful thus far. Did the gauntlets work as expected?"

Forge stood up from where he'd been sitting, on the edge of the room. "I checked the readings during the session. Everything seems to be in order."

"Good, thank you." Wraith turned back to Shift as Forge left.

"So, what are we going to do, sir?" asked Shift.

"You're going to fight him." Wraith raised his voice. "Is everything ready, Mr. Stevenson?"

"Yes, sir," said a voice from outside the doorway. While they had been talking the entire complex, except for a small portion had morphed. Large weapons emplacements had formed. The sunlight was given an odd color due to the overlapping shields.

Shift waved his hands. "There's no way I can take this guy, if he's as powerful as you say. These gauntlets have increased my abilities, but not that much"

"You're right. That's why we're going to turn them on to full power." Shift felt something in the gauntlets move. Power flooded through him. His eyes began to glow. Wraith's voice was still impassive. "They were on one percent of full capacity. Forge wanted to be sure they were safe before they were used at full strength. How strong do you feel now?"

Shift opened and closed his hands. "Maybe," he said smiling.

There was a boom in the distance. "Good, because he has arrived." Wraith retreated to where Isaac was manning the weapons emplacements.

"Sir, this station is only slightly more powerful than the other ones were."

"Don't worry, Mr. Stevenson. It's all a part of the plan." Wraith brought up a diagnostic of the gauntlets. They were running just fine. "Patch a feed to the New York office for Ms. Maximoff."

"Yes, sir."

Wanda had cast a spell to allow her to communicate directly to Shift. It also allowed her to dully get a sense of what was happening. The computer feed made up for what was lacking. "He's immensely powerful," she said.

"I know. I can feel it. Suggestions?" said Shift.

"The data we have says he likes to move around a lot. He'll teleport behind you if you're not careful. So keep moving, and keep your defenses up. Don't give him an opportunity to blindside you. He is insane and requires new realities and magical items to keep his sanity. It might be why he is attacking. He has the Eye of Watoomb in place of his right eye. Removing it might unhinge him. But you'll have to get past his shield."

"Right. Here goes nothing." Shift flew off towards Traveler. The speed was blinding. He was glad for the practice beforehand, but the augmented powers sill made it hard to control. Traveler fired a bolt of energy at him. Shift caught it, and using one of the spells he'd learned threw it back. Traveler dodged. Shift began to fire energy bolts of his own at Traveler, which he seemed to be taking rather easily.

But there seemed to be some strain in his voice when he said, "Your magic is unusual boy." He fired off two energy bolts in quick succession. "You seem unfamiliar with it." He suddenly disappeared. Shift moved as fast as he could. Traveler reappeared just behind where he had been. "You stink of science. Has Wraith made some new device? Perhaps I'll have to add it to my collection."

They continued to duel, neither getting the upper hand. When they separated far enough apart, Isaac would fire at Traveler with the weapons emplacements. But these didn't seem to have any effect either. Finally Traveler said, "I tire of this." There were suddenly terrifying images in Shift's mind. He realized he was under telepathic attack. His magic was of little use. He tried to use his willpower to defend himself and some strategies that the Martian Manhunter had taught him, but Traveler was very quickly overcoming him.

That was when a wolf appeared in his mind and began rend Traveler's astral form into pieces. He retreated and came into himself. He shook off the attack. "What is in you boy?" he asked, but Shift was unconscious. The attack had overexerted his mind.

Traveler could feel his madness growing. He had spent too much time here with nothing yet to show for it. He took Shift's gauntlets and placed them on his own hands. Power coursed through him. "Hmmm…not the most powerful device, but certainly impressive." He began to fly towards the training center.

"Now, if you please, Mr. Stephenson," said Wraith. Isaac pushed button.

Something in the gauntlets clicked. Traveler had felt it. Suddenly, his magical energy began to be pulled out of him and into the gauntlets. He tried to remove them, but they were locked on. As his energy dropped, his mind fled. His body relaxed and he began to speak gibberish.

Wraith then flew out. He produced a weapon and fired it at Traveler, who then fell into unconsciousness. Wraith brought him to the teleporter and sent him through. He then retrieved Shift, and he and Isaac went back to the New York office.

"What was your analysis, Ms. Maximoff?" Wraith, Isaac, Wanda, and Forge were sitting around a conference table.

"Based upon the devices and the locations they reappeared at, it would seem that Traveler is working with Dormammu," she said apprehensively.

Wraith expressively exhaled through his nose. "Well, at least now, Dr. Strange will be interested. I'm glad we put those tracking spells on them."

"What did you do with Traveler?" asked Forge.

"I placed him in an empty universe. I also removed the Eye of Watoomb and cauterized the socket. For the time being at least he should not be a threat." Wraith dismissed everyone but stayed seated at the table. He pulled the Eye of Watoomb out of one of his pockets and examined it. He could feel it trying to exert an influence on him. But his will was far too tempered for something so crude to work. He placed it in a stasis unit later that night while he was investigating the connection between the objects and Dormammu. But the rest of the base was filled with activity even after Wraith laid down for some much needed rest.

Shift woke up a few hours after the battle ended. Bodily he was fine. But his psyche had taken a beating. From his loss, from Traveler's astral attack, and from the knowledge that the magic amplifiers Wraith had armed him with were really a failsafe to remove him if necessary. He'd used his magic to hack the surveillance system and had seen what happened after he lost the fight. Anger pooled in his gut like molten lead. True, he'd never fully trusted Wraith but that didn't make the betrayal easier to bear. He couldn't even stand being in the building so he opened his portal and went into the white tower. He tore through the libraries and various rooms in the tower, going up higher than he ever had, looking through older texts rendered readable only through his magic. He was looking for a spell to make him stronger. Strong enough that no one could ever betray him and get away with it. But then he came to a room without books. A long, narrow room full of paintings, statues, tapestries and murals. Each of them told a different story. But they all had common elements. Humans, dressed in black cloaks bearing a serpentine insignia. Some destroyed civilizations, some killed monsters, some brought life to dead landscapes. They were all magi of incredible power.

"These are my predecessors. Why do they have so much power? What's the difference between us?" he kept walking, the depictions getting older and older. The hallway came to a small room. The moment he stepped in the floor pulled his magic out of him, all of it. The sudden lack of power dropped Shift to his knees. After his vision cleared again and his legs stopped shaking he made it to his feet. The formerly white wall in front of him was covered with writing. It was in English and what it said sent chills down his spine. He had been chosen at birth to assume an office. One even older than Dr. Fate. That was when he discovered the source of his power, and the power of those who came before. The embodiment of Chaos from the First Age of Magic. The Leviathan.

Now he was given the choice. Either he took the office upon himself, along with all the power and knowledge that came with it. Or he surrendered the power he had been given thus far and lived out his life as he wished. It wasn't a hard choice. For the sake of his revenge and to ensure Cadmus and all similar organizations burned, he would sacrifice everything.

"I want it. I trade a life of freedom for the power and duties of this office. I claim the mantle of the Leviathan!" The writing on the wall slid to the floor, making it black as pitch. The energy wound itself around his legs and crawled up him. Even in Shift's radically adjusted scale of pain it hurt. He was pretty sure his heart would give out if it went on much longer. But in a few short moments it was done. He conjured a mirror in the room to get a good look at what he had become. What he saw was a man wearing a black longcoat and hood. Shadows covered his face, obscuring it from view. Around his neck, on the outside of his coat, a silver representation of the Leviathan. He lifted the hood, noting that black leather gloves now covered his hands, revealing his face, same as it was before he agreed to the contract.

"Well, that's a letdown. I was hoping for some facial markings or a tattoo or something. Time for a test run." Shift walked down to one of the larger halls in the tower and tried his hand at some energy projection. He held out a hand and made an effort of will. A ball of energy the size of a boulder appeared just above his hand. And it wasn't the smoky energy he was used to. It was as different from his former magic as water from mist. He gently let the energy dissipate, which was nerve wracking considering just how much power he had called up. Even with the magic amplifying tech Wraith had given him he hadn't been that powerful. He practiced until he got the hang of calling up as much energy as he intended.

He returned to Wraith's compound late that night, having gained a new level of control. He had made his mantle disappear with a thought before coming back. But he could feel the power, still covering him protectively. Which was very fortunate for him when a shoulder launched rocket hit him. When the smoke cleared he was unharmed and hadn't moved an inch. The he saw the homicidal lunatic holding the rocket launcher. Deadpool, having figured out that his recent bad luck streak had been a result of Shift cursing him, had come to break the curse.

"And I'm here to break it my way!" _Yeah. The way that involves pointy things and Semtex. _Little did the insane mercenary know, Shift was now powerful enough to do any number of horrifyingly disturbing things to him. "Whoa, back up chatterbox. He can do what now?" Deadpool asked, staring at the sky. Wait, are you asking me? "Who else would I be shouting at?" Um, OK. Moving on- "Don't ignore me you four-eyed geek!" Shift took advantage of Deadpool's odd behavior and laid an paralysis curse on him. "Dude that's just not cool!" Unfortunately the curse didn't disable his mouth.

"Who the heck are you talking to?" Shift said, looking around to see if anyone was hiding nearby.

"The writer. Well, one of the writers. The wider one." There are things worse than death you know. "So? It's not like there's anything that hasn't been done to me." Oh, we'll see about that.

"You know, I really want to turn you into something. But since Wraith likes to hire you maybe we can cut a deal." 3 hours of agonizing conversation later they had reached a mutually beneficial agreement. Shift paid him a large sum money and took off the curses. Deadpool owed him a favor, whenever Shift decided to call it in. Shift promptly transported him several hundred miles away. Favor or no, if Shift didn't get some quiet he was going to kill someone.

"You want me to what?" Wraith's current appointment was a young woman, maybe 25 years old. Dark hair, and matching eyes. Her tactical suit and weapons were a shade darker yet. At the moment she was upset because she thought Wraith believed he could hire her to kill someone.

"Just keep an eye on the kid. But if the situation should change and you need to defend yourself you'll need silver bullets. I'll include the cost of ammunition in your fee, Neena." Wraith pushed a cash card across the table.

"I told you, my name's Domino now." She took the card and slipped it into a case on her belt.

"It doesn't suit you. Oh, and one more thing. Make sure you stay downwind of him. I want to make sure he doesn't pull anything funny. He may very well want to kill me, but I need his help or things are probably going to get bad for a while." There was a slight frown on Wraith's face. But that was just his professional mask. There was anger behind it. At Dormammu, and at himself for not recognizing that Dr. Strange had not been his usual self. After a short conversation with Emma Frost (whom he detested) his suspicions had been confirmed. Dormammu could hide himself in a human body, he could mask his foul magic. But he couldn't mimic the brainwaves of a human being.

"And by bad you mean...?" Domino asked.

"A world very closely resembling Hell on Earth. A place where people are prey to be hunted down by unspeakable monstrosities. And a demonic being wreathed in flames rules over the carnage, feeding on the death and misery." Wraith's expression didn't change. Still calm, still professional.

"Wow. If that's bad what's your idea of terrible?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Is there anything else you'll need to fulfill your assignment?" Domino smiled.

"I'm gonna need a gun. With a very powerful scope." Wraith had equipped her with one of his more advanced sniper rifles and sent her on her way. He sat brooding in his office, considering his options. This mystical incursion couldn't have come at a worse time. There were less than 200 mutants on Earth and most of them had secluded themselves on the island Utopia. The X-men were not likely to leave the island, even for something like this. Not while they were still protecting Hope Summers, the mutant Messiah. The Fantastic Four were off world. The Avengers were... well, he didn't trust a team put together by Norman Osbourn. Basically, he was on his own with whatever B-league heroes he could scrounge together. He called Deadpool, who was in Baja California, and wasn't making any sense. He called in his team and Wanda Maximoff. She was his only other magic resource. And he knew Shift wasn't likely to be trustworthy, especially after he found out what the gauntlets were really for. His magic hacking had left pretty obvious traces in Wraith's security system.

Dormammu had a rather dramatic head start on him. The objects he'd stolen were placed in several spots around the country, and according to Wanda they were behind powerful shields. There were 5 target locations. If he could get the shields dropped he could take all five simultaneously and confront a weakened and unprepared Dormammu. Wanda believed his power would be cut dramatically as long as he was in Strange's body. Far too many "what-ifs" surrounded this whole affair for Wraith to be at all comfortable.

He contacted Shift later that same day. The younger man was surprisingly upbeat. "What's up?" Shift asked.

"We've got trouble. Traveler seems to be just a pawn in a larger game. Have you ever heard of a being called Dormammu?"

"No, but I only just turned 18. I need time to really study up. Why, what is it?"

"The magical being that rules the Dark Dimension. He's here and masquerading as a human sorcerer. We think Traveler was working as his inside man to help him fully crossover." Wraith was listening carefully to the sounds in the background as Shift grunted his understanding. From what he could hear the teen was back at his compound in the Universe of the Justice League.

"Ok, I'll be right there." Shift hung up the communicator. Seconds later alarms went off in his base.

"Is he suicidal?" Wraith muttered to himself as he disarmed the more lethal security protocols.

"No. I've always tended more toward homicide than suicide." Wraith had shields up around him before the end of the first word. "Sorry for the surprise. But the only way out of that deathtrap you built was to hide in a familiar shadow."

"Are you telling me you can just pop out of any person's shadow you've been in before?" He kept his shields up. He knew Shift was doing this to make a point. He'd given the kid an ultimatum, that he would kill him if he stepped over the line. This little display was his response. And it's threat was no less potent than his own.

"Well, within certain limits." Shift said,looking far happier than Wraith was comfortable with.

"Which are?"

"Complicated." Wraith sighed in frustration. The boy had grown more spine than was healthy.

"Would you be willing to help me protect this world? It's most powerful magic guardian is already lost."

"Why should I? I'm not your trainee anymore, you broke that trust with your shackles." And there it was. That was why Shift looked so happy. His oath of loyalty was no longer binding so he could act as he wished.

"Because of the children who will be captured and tortured if Dormammu fully manifests in our world." Shift stopped smiling and his gaze fogged over in memory. "No one should have to go through what you did. But if you walk away, there's a good chance that thousands will experience that same desolation and pain. Do you want to be the kind of man who could do that?" The words hit Shift like a freight train. To hear his decision illustrated in such a way caused him shame so intense it was almost a physical pain. Wraith hadn't said the words simply to shame the young man. He had said them because he had seen the sorcerer turn his head toward a darkening road. Even though Shift was no longer under his authority, that did not absolve him of responsibility for who the young man became.

"What do you need from me?" Shift said, pulling together the tattered remains of his pride.

"To work with me. I am powerful and resourceful. But no one can do everything. And magic-" Wraith hated magic with a passion. And he felt justified in that hate. It always seemed to cause more problems than it solved. "Magic is an area that has always proved difficult to me. In those cases I would rely upon our Sorcerer Supreme. But this time, he is the one who needs help."

"You want me to rescue him. Do you know where he is?" Shift asked. He was focused, almost single mindedly on what he was supposed to do.

"Ms Maximoff will tell you the particulars. I'm needed elsewhere. You should take this." Wraith gestured at the blade sitting next to his desk. Shift had never taken it back.

"Hold on to it for the time being. Kogitsunemaru is a powerful friend. And if you're sending me somewhere else, it's a friend you're going to need."

"Adam, in the interest of full disclosure, I've assigned someone to watch you while you're here." Wraith knew he was gambling here. With this gesture he's either win everything or he'd lose everything. Shift nodded, but his jaw tensed up.

"You're never going to trust me, are you."

"Maybe. But not yet. I can't afford to." Wraith sent him to where he would meet with the Scarlet Witch. Then he called for Isaac. "Mr. Stevenson. I need you to do something. Something that you may not much enjoy. But I can't ask anyone else to do it." Isaac nodded.

"Sir, I know that if you're asking me you do not ask lightly. What do you need me to do?"

"Lead the Livewires. Coordinate the attacks on the target locations." Isaac started. Wraith had essentially asked him to takeover the operation.

"Why?" Isaac asked.

"Because Dormammu will not stand idly by while we attempt this. Someone needs to hold his attention." Isaac's eyes widened as the implication of the statement hit home.

"And when Dormammu kills you? What then?" Isaac said, speaking bluntly.

"I'm counting on you to teleport in and help me as soon as you've finished retrieving the artifacts. If you're late I'm going to send Dormammu, Strange's body included, into orbit." Wraith said, partially in bravado. He was hoping, in all honesty, that he wouldn't have to fight Dormammu at all. Violence was plan B. Plan A was a con so delicate that any surprises and the whole thing would fall apart. He had devised it long ago but never put it into effect because of the risks. To say that it was costly and elaborate would be an understatement. Simply put he had to stage a war against Earth. To delay the plans of someone as powerful as Dormammu and allow them to retain their cover he had to put on a show. A big one. To stage something that big and ensure no casualties usually required that both sides knew what was going on. But with the kind of enemy he had in mind that wouldn't be a problem. There would be plenty of injuries but nothing serious. He sighed , rubbing a spot between his eyes that had started to ache. This was going to be a long week.

Domino was baking in the sun. Her china white skin was not suited to bright sunny days. Or 105 degree heat. She had been watching Shift wander around New York for nearly a full day. He'd gone to a dozen shady shops, a few bookstores, the metropolitan library, and now he was just standing in front of Avenger's tower. "A sweatshirt and jeans in this heat? What's up with this kid?" She muttered to herself.

After what felt like an eternity a gust of wind came from behind her, providing a few moments of sweet relief from the sweltering summer weather. Her eyes closed for a moment to savor the feeling. When they opened again Shift was on the move. People parted in front of him subconsciously as he ran. Domino followed him with her scope as long as possible. When he was out of the line of sight she activated the tracking device she had planted on him earlier that day. She'd shot him with it from half a mile away. No sense in taking chances. The tracker was so small that it would feel like a mosquito bite when it implanted in the skin.

Shift was moving quickly. Ducking around corners and doubling back. He was running like he was trying to lose somebody. Domino was leaping around on rooftops just trying to keep up. She didn't even have enough time to scope him. The wind was picking up. A storm was probably coming in off the ocean. The sun was starting to drop below the horizon. Deep shadows were forming around the buildings. _I'll have to set the scope to infrared when he stops. _Domino thought. She loved her new toy. The X-men never supplied her with such quality equipment.

Her muscles were starting to tire. Light her gun may be, but an hour of running around had taken it's toll. But Shift was still on the move so she kept going. Another hour of chasing later he finally stopped. Domino practically fell over on top of an old apartment building that had been gutted and turned into a hotel. The tracker said he was inside the building so she closed her eyes and tried to level out her breathing. She heard a small clink as a glass bottle touched the stone of the roof. Her pistol was out of her holster and aimed at the sound in one second flat.

"I've never been pursued so vigorously. I know it's not exactly "etiquette" for the prey to offer the predator a drink. Then again no one's ever accused me of standing on ceremony either." Shift was sitting on the roof's ledge holding a glass bottle. Another bottle was sitting next to him on the ledge. Domino put away her gun.

"What's your game?" Domino asked, eyeing the bottle with suspicion. She was incredibly thirsty and that bottle was proving to be quite the temptation.

"No game. Well, Ok. I'm playing a game, but you're not in it." he paused and smiled at her. "It's a beautiful night. A bright moon, a cool breeze, the sounds of the city." He took a drink from his bottle. "And a beautiful woman to drink with." he picked up the bottle he'd set aside and floated it over to her with a simple cantrip. One that required no incantation or gesture. He'd made a priority of learning as many of those spells as possible. You can silence a person, and restrain their hands, but restraining a strong mind was nearly impossible.

"Getting hit on by teenager's is not my idea of a great night. And you're still wet behind the ears if you think I'm going to drink this." Domino tossed this bottle back at him. Shift caught it, then cracked it open and took a drink.

"I knew you wouldn't. Sorry, I indulge in petty cruelties every once in a while." He smiled, she scowled. "Sure you wouldn't like a drink?" he floated the bottle back over to her and she took a drink.

"What the-?" Domino muttered when the sugary drink hit her tongue.

"Root beer. I'm still two years short of buying alcohol." Shift took another drink from his bottle. "So, down to business. Wraith sent you to watch me. That stops now."

"I don't take orders from bratty kids who need a babysitter." Domino said, finishing her rootbeer. Shift sighed. He reached inside his shirt collar and pulled out a small silver medal. He undid the clasp and dropped it on the roof. Shift had always been able to sneak up on people because he lacked "presence". That instinctive feeling of other that people could sense even before they noticed a person with their five senses. The St. Jude medal was a powerful charm that sealed off detection by certain means. Now that he had removed it the full weight of what he was hit the rooftop like a tidal wave. Shift opened his eyes and made eye contact with Domino. She suddenly felt it hard to breathe, or even move. She was terrified by what she saw there. Cold wrath and a terrifying amount of power behind it. Physically Shift was exactly what she claimed, barely more than a child. But the office he served made him so much more than that. Shift put the medal back on and the suffocating "presence" vanished. But Shift's yellow eyes, filled to the brim with violent intent, would probably make an appearance or two in Domino's nightmares.

"Now that we understand each other, I'm asking you to stop following me." Domino swallowed to clear away the remainder of her fear.

"I don't care about your big bad puppy eyes. I deliver on my promises or no one hires me. I'm going to follow you until Wraith says enough or he runs out of money. And I wouldn't bet on the second one." Shift had been hoping to scare her away. Since that didn't seem likely, he changed tactics.

"We'll see how long you follow me when I walk through the gates of hell. Too bad, so young and pretty." Shift shook his head for a bit of melodrama.

"Whoa, now. My contract only covered one world, this one. I'm not damning myself to follow you."

"I didn't mean the literal Hell. But where I've been preparing to go to the differences are hard to distinguish. I'll make you an offer. Come with me, help me out, and I'll stack another million dollars in solid gold on top of whatever Wraith is paying."

"Right, like you've got a million in g-" Shift pulled a gold ingot from a pocket and tossed it in front of her. "Woah." Domino's eyes were very wide and fixed on that shimmering point of wealth.

"Down payment. Show of good faith. The rest is in another dimension, safe from sticky fingered mercenaries."

"I'm not a thief you half-grown, homicidal-"

"Not you Neena." Shift's knowledge of her real name made her mouth snap shut. "I was talking about Deadpool."

"That seems out of character. Usually Wade would try to kill you then take your stuff." Domino said, not one to be silent for long.

"Well, he did hit me with a shoulder fired rocket first. Then he started talking to someone who isn't there. And things went downhill in a hurry."

"Uh huh. And where exactly did you say you were going?" Her eyes were back on the bar of gold laying at her feet.

"A place called the Dark Dimension. Once there I plan to stage a coup d'etat, and destroy the dimensional lynchpin causing a spatial collapse. But I'd settle for the takeover if necessary." Warning bells went off left and right in Domino's head. It sounded like a suicide mission. But the risks involved also proved and delicious enticement. It had been far too long since Domino had been free to do something truly dangerous. And she missed it badly.

"Alright, I'm in. Watching you through a gun sight was getting boring anyway. Just out of curiosity, how did you know where I was? Or even that I was following you?" Shift tapped his nose in reply.

"The smell of gun oil. The same brand of gun oil and women's strawberry shampoo are not scents usually found together. And for me to smell them several times in one day..."

"You can smell me from half a mile off? What are you?"

"Werewolf." Shift said, lifting a lip to show long pointed canines. "So, we'd better get something to eat before we leave. Know anywhere romantic?" he said playfully.

"I really don't need someone following me around like a lost little puppy." Domino said, throwing the empty bottle at Shift's head. It shattered against his face. The small cuts stung and blood got in one eye. Shift fell backward over the edge of the roof. Domino reached for him and caught his shirt. Their eyes met again and Shift smiled. Then he pulled Domino over the roof with him. Her mind went momentarily blank with shock. Had Shift just killed them both? Her mind cleared as they fell past the 29th floor. She tried for her grapple but Shift restrained her arm. The last thing she saw before passing out was the shadow the building threw on the New York concrete. The last thought was how deep and black the shadow seemed compared to the street. Then her mind shut down before the ground got up close and personal. Then she opened her eyes.

That she was alive and not in agonizing pain came as a shock. Then she did what any normal person would do after surviving their supposed death. She went for her gun.

"Uh uh uh." Shift taunted from the other side of the lavishly furnished room. Domino had come to on an obscenely comfortable leather couch. Shift was in a Victorian age armchair. The mutant's weapons were on the end-table next to Shift's chair, out of reach for Dom. "I don't like having guns with silver bullets aimed at me." His tone of voice changed when he said silver.

"Allergies? I get that with shellfish. My throat swells up and-" Shift picked up the gun and put it to his hand and squeezed the trigger. The .45 calibur hollow point lead bullet put a quarter size hole in his hand. Shift's sense of pain had been dulled since he accepted his mantle but that still hurt. He held up the hand and Domino could see the wound healing over the course of the next minute.

"If I get any silver in me then my ability to heal like that get's shut down until the silver is out. It makes me easy to kill."Domino took her eyes off the possibly unstable young man long enough to get a good look around. There were a number of things that bothered her about the room, but the utter blackness outside the window took first place easy.

"Which pit of Hell did you drop us into after you threw us off the building?"

"Hell? Huh, I guess what's left of this land would be easy to mistake for Hell. This is the Forlorn Plane. There's nothing alive here except us and whatever microorgansims we brought in. This is my domain. A smoldering wreck brought about by my predecessor. I intend to fix it, when I get the chance."

"You're like a pile of scary questions that I don't want the answers to. Can we leave now?" she really didn't like that she and Shift were the only people in the dimension.

"I just thought you could use a layover before we jumped in the fire. Follow me." Shift started up the staircase of to his right. The went down what felt like a dozen floors before the werewolf announced they were there. The room was nearly bare. Except for the candle stands and the magic circle set in gold on the floor.

"Any last wishes I should pass along in the event of your death?" Shift asked, trying for deadpan humor. Domino didn't appreciate it.

"I need my guns." Shift snapped his fingers and they appeared in front of her in a pile. She checked them, everything intact. Even the sniper rifle with the silver bullets. Shift knelt at the side of the circle and put one hand on the edge. Words poured out of him and caused the circle to pull energy from him and the tower. The tug was slightly unpleasant, as was the sound of his incantation. Unpleasant words that would bring him to an unpleasant realm.

"Hold on tight or you might end up somewhere you don't want to be. Like the inside of some creature's spleen." Shift held out his hand and Domino took it, albeit reluctantly.

"Ow! You scratched me!" Domino complained. He gave her a slight grin, then jumped into the light of the circle. Sight and sound vanished. They experienced a variety of unpleasant smells, textures, and tastes. They fell out onto a stone floor under a blood red sky.

"Darn it. The singularity didn't stabilize in null." Shift got to his feet and spat on the ground to clear his mouth of the phantom taste. Domino got up and almost lost her meager breakfast. But she persevered.

"That was disgusting." Dom still felt queasy. "Couldn't you have made us a door to walk through or something?"

"Sorry. First time conjuring a gate." Dom's jaw dropped. "I'm better with combat magic." Someone cleared their throat behind the bickering duo.

"Ahem. I hate to interrupt. But I have a letter for you." The person in question was a man only 4 half feet tall wearing an expensive suit. His grin was stretched far too wide, reminding Shift of a certain insane clown. Held in an outstretched hand was a black envelope. "And I think you'll want to open it as soon as possible. Oh yes it's something you'll surely need." Domino didn't like that he'd shown up in a world she'd heard compared to hell. Shift didn't even need the benefit of rational thought to know this guy was bad news. The lycanthropy curse had been diminished when he purged himself of the other curse. But the healing and animal instincts were still both there. And his hair was on end the second he set eyes on this malevolent dwarf. He could feel an involuntary growl building in his chest. Domino looked over to him and saw claws coming out of his fingertips. But when Shift looked at the envelope the aggression and fear slid away. What replaced it was an emotion foreign to the young man. Naked greed. His hand reached out for it,seemingly of it's own accord. It took an actual effort of will to stop himself from grabbing it.

"What the hell is that?" Shift asked the little demon.

"Everything a powerful young sorcerer could ever want. Knowledge, power." Shift's hand made a move for the envelope again. Domino grabbed it before Shift could. Then she tossed it on the ground and tried to shoot it. The bullet was vaporized before it hit. A second later it was back in the dwarf's hand. "Silly woman. I made him the offer, not you." Domino turned the gun on the dwarf and fired. The dwarf was no more bothered by them than the envelope. Shift hadn't reacted to any of the gunfire. His senses had been focused so singularly on the envelope that everything else was tuned out. Until Domino slapped him in the face.

"Don't you dare." was all she said. But it was enough. Shift let his arm relax and said one word, so quietly that Domino wasn't even sure she heard The Dwarf's smile didn't waver.

"Pardon? You'll have to speak up."

"I said no." Shift was literally shaking from the internal strife he was experiencing.

"Well, that is unfortunate. But no matter. I'll come again later. Maybe when the nanny isn't around." then he was gone. No smoke or flash of light. He was there, then he wasn't. Shift on the other hand was still not doing well. He couldn't stop his hands from shaking.

"Let's go before someone else finds us." He said, jamming his hands into his pockets. He hadn't been in the Dark Dimension for more than two minutes and already he'd nearly failed his mission. That envelope had contained a black magic spell of incredible power. He'd felt that without even touching it. With that kind of powerful magic he could have hunted down and destroyed his enemies in a matter of days. His heart stuttered in his chest as he recalled Wraith's promise. No matter how much power he gained that threat would still hold weight in his mind.

"Go where?" Domino asked. She had a point. The whole world they were in looked hostile. There was nothing growing, it was all rock and dust. The air was stale, dry, and befouled by scents she couldn't even identify.

"To find the second in command, where else? You want to start a civil war you need to get close to those in power. If you want to help just keep your eyes peeled for a huge building." They walked for a few hours across the hellish landscape. There were buildings, but they were ruins and looked like they had been for some time. "All right, let's take a short break. I need to alter my plans apparently." They picked a set of ruins and took a short rest. Well, Domino did. Shift had found a number of interesting carvings in the walls of the ruins. He had no idea what the symbols were, but the pictographs allowed him to make some sense of what he saw. It was a spell to merge dimensions, and a depiction of one eyed golems that could fire optic later beams. If he saw this in a book he probably would just disregard it is some kid with an under-active imagination. But since someone took the time to carve it into rock... he decided to take their word for it.

"Kid, I'm paid to watch you, so if you don't mind standing still while I not carry around 50 lbs in munitions I'd appreciate it." She did look a little worn down. Shift waved a hand, dismissing her complaint.

"We'll be leaving soon anyway. I hope you like jewelry." The offhand comment made her raise an eyebrow.

"Why?" Shift called up a little energy and reformed his black cloak.

"Oh, no reason." He pulled his hood up and fired a blast of chaos magic up through the ceiling. It exploded in the sky with an almost deafening boom and more than a little light. "I'd go hide your gear. There should be some guards or soldiers here to capture or kill us us in a moment." Domino's jaw dropped and she walked away muttering to herself. Shift managed to hear it anyway.

"I resent that. My sanity is within acceptable standard deviations." Shift said absentmindedly. He had started drawing black symbols on the air. It was hard for Domino to even look at them and she doubted very much if anyone who could make them was entirely sane. "I call upon the forgotten moments, the gap between heartbeats. The empty night. I summon, conjure and command thee, creatures of the darkness. Rise from the shadows of this poisoned land." Creatures wreathed in blackness crawled from the shadows and moved toward him. Domino watched all this from less than 20 feet away. She saw them sink into Shift's shadow and disappear. One by one they went. Five, ten, a dozen, a hundred. She lost count. With the darkness cloaking them she couldn't really see what they looked like in detail, but for their many shapes and forms, she was certain of one thing. They were hungry. "What are you doing Neena?" The woman started, shaken from her trance by his voice. In that waking she found she was pointing her gun at Shift, the safety had been taken off, and her finger was on the trigger.

"I- I'm not..." she put the gun down and put a hand to her head. Something was very wrong with her.

"We don't have time for that right now. They're coming." Shift's voice had long since lost it's teasing tone. Power washed against her with every word he spoke. Since he put on the black coat it was like he was a completely different person. Then she heard wings. Sure enough, batwinged creatures were approaching from the west. Four massive batwinged creatures.

"So, are bullets going to kill them or is it going to be a repeat of the indestructible letter?" Domino asked.

"No idea. I'm just as much of a newbie here as you are. New world new rules. Give it try anyway, it'll be educational." Domino loaded a steel jacketed round into her brand new sniper rifle. The cartridge size was .308 with a slightly overpowered grain count. The sights were all next gen, including an electric and manual option. She placed the bracing legs on one of the blocks comprising the wall they were sheltering behind. The things were still more than a mile off, but Domino was confidant she could put a bullet into their heads. The round hit the lead creature in what appeared to be it's head and dinged off as if it were a pebble.

"Guess I can't shoot them. I hope your pets are tough." Domino looked at Shift's shadow with open apprehension. It might have been her imagination, or it might have been primitive human instinct, but she thought she saw his shadow squirm. Shift wasn't listening. He had taken one of her silver bullets and he was whispering over it. The silver started darkening until it went pitch black.

"Silver, one of the easiest metals to enchant. Thank you Wraith." Shift handed her the magic munition and she chambered it. The beast she shot exploded like rotten fruit hit by a shotgun blast.

"I don't think I've ever said this before, but I think that counts as excessive firepower." Shift had two more bullets enchanted and ready to go before she looked up from her scope.

"Nonsense. I need one of them to make it here alive. Try not to scare them off before I can get my hands on one of them." Domino loaded up another shell and let them close in. The second shell tore one in half and the other two split and tried to approach from two directions. She lined up a shot for the one that went to her right. Before she could get a good angle she saw something hit it midair and bring it down. She chanced a glance away to find that Shift had left. She knew it was a mistake when she heard heavy wingbeats off to her left. She swung the rifle toward the new target and it's batwing knocked the firearm from her grip. She pulled her pistol and fired. The bullet ricocheted off it's skull and buried itself in the stone column on her left. The bat-creature, like a cross between a vampire bat and a bulldog, swiped at her with a bony forepaw but missed. She fired of half a dozen more rounds, blinding the creature with two shots, but the other four ricocheted. Apparently being blind didn't hinder the beast enormously. It's next swipe caught her ammo belt and tore it from her shoulder. Domino was tossed more than 20 feet to the side, out of the temple structure, just before the whole building collapsed. The creature was buried under hundreds of tons of marble and stone.

"Wow. That was lucky." Shift was sitting on the other beast's corpse, not a speck of blood on his black clothes. "Too bad your rifle was still in there." he was lying. He'd taken possession of it and hidden it in his shadow.

"Didn't even have it for 48 hours. This is why mercenaries can't have nice things." Domino said a little dejectedly.

"Well, it's time to get going. I'm going to change into one of these things and present you as a prisoner so I can find the prison. Then I free Strange and overthrow the Steward."

"Whoa, back up. Steward? Prisoner? What are you talking about?" Shift was in front of her before she could blink and put a finger to her lips.

"Don't worry about it. You love taking crazy risks. Just think of it as a thrill ride." Even close up it was difficult to see Shift's face. But his eyes were literal lights in the shadow of his hood. And his smile was wide as he hit her with a sleeping spell.

He followed through with his plan and passed as one of Umar's personal tracking force. The prison was the interior of a mountain. Shift could feel his fur(he was still using the bat form) bristle from the enormous amount of arcane energy flowing through and contained within that mountain. There was more than just one high level magic user locked in here. Once he was past the guards he resumed his usual form and broke the spell on Domino. She woke up groggy, and somewhat unbalanced.

"You're just a big jerk, you know?"

"Hey, sleeping spells are traditionally sealed and broken with a kiss. I thought you'd be happy I didn't take that liberty." It was getting harder for Shift to restrain himself. His magic just wanted to run wild and break down all these barriers. To his magic such blatant display of "order" was intolerable. But he persevered. He had to lead Domino by the hand until she came back to herself. Then he found the cell he wanted. He recognized the face from a picture Wraith had shown him. He'd seen better days but he was still whole. "Rise and shine my good doctor. You have work to do." The barrier holding him in was powerful, as was the stasis spell keeping Strange unconscious. But the darkness of Shift's magic unraveled them in moments. His eyes snapped open and he vanished with a flare of magic. "Well how do you like that. Not so much as a thanks."

"He's doing his job. Just like you should be." Domino said.

"Oh, be assured. I'm doing exactly as I'm supposed to. And I'm not done yet."

"What do you- oh. You mean the Steward you were talking about."

"Ding-ding-ding. I'll take her off her throne and rob Dormammu of his crown. But you're not going to make it easy for me, are you?" Shift was looking over Domino's shoulder toward the prison entrance. There was a woman, dressed in an impractical and revealing outfit. She was tall and had long black hair. That was how she looked to Domino. Shift's eyes saw a creature with an indistinct face wreathed in flame. It's eyes twitched frantically back and forth, losing then regaining focus.

"A little boy and a woman who lost her love. And you believe you can kill me? Fools." she snapped her fingers and dozens more of her bat creatures attacked them, practically filling the cave.

"Little boy? Is that all you think I am?" Shift snapped his fingers and the beasts he had conjured leaped out of his shadow and hit the bat creatures like a tidal wave. Umar blasted both groups to ash with fairly little effort. Shift took his medal off and what he was became plain for Umar to see. Domino had ducked into Strange's former cell. She knew better than to get in the way of two superpowers in the middle of a gunslinging match.

"Not little boy. Little magus. But if that's all you are then you aren't strong enough to stand against me. The Sorcerer Supreme is the only moral who might be considered my peer." Umar had haughty grin and her body language made it clear what she thought of him.

"Yeah, about that. Things are a little different where I come from." They made eye contact. Suddenly Shift was right in front of Umar, standing inside all of her protections and shields. His hand shot out and buried itself in her stomach. In a spray of blood Shift tore out her liver and held in in front of her.

The illusion was very convincing, but it could only last a few moments after being diluted through her shields. When she came back to reality Shift was already chanting a spell.

"Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!" Umar bound Shift in bands of red energy. Darkness seeped out of Shift's longcoat and rotted the binding spell. He finished his spell and a blast of darkness hit Umar. Or would have. Her shields were more than up to the task of blocking the energy.

"Pathetic. How did someone with so little power even manage to enter this realm through my barrier?"

"OK, you got me. Magic isn't as strong where I come from. And because of that, those of us that use it had to get clever. Look down." There was a three layer magic circle at her feet. While the darkness had blinded her Shift had used his shadow to carve the circle. The explosion that resulted blew open the entrance to the mountain and had both Shift and Umar standing under the red sky. Shift's confidence disappeared when he saw that Umar hadn't even been singed by the explosion.

"I'm still waiting to be impressed." She hit him with blasts of green energy that burned literal holes through him. He countered by conjuring a black mist to conceal them both. He was stalling for enough time to heal himself. Then he heard familiar footsteps a little ways behind him. That gave him an idea. Two minutes later, Umar got fed up with firing away blindly and she dispelled the mist.

"Now I understand why you're so weak. You don't know how to call upon the Principalities. Watch closely. Icy Tendrils of Ikthalon!" The ground underneath him froze and ice was up to his knees before he could avoid it. He could feel the frostbite creeping up his legs. But Umar wouldn't allow him time to focus on that. "Flames of the Faltine!" A deluge of fire came from her hands and would have given Shift a thorough toasting had he not poured most of his remaining energy into a shield. Even with that potent defense he could still feel the heat. Then a gunshot rang out loud, even against the roar of Umar's inferno. The fire ended and Shift dropped his shield. A grapefruit sized hole was now where Umar's heart should have been. Shift had a hand around her neck before she even realized she'd been shot in the back. The words that poured out of his mouth were harsh and gutteral. He met Umar's eyes and held his gaze until she slipped from consciousness. The hole in her chest closed fairly quickly owing to her true nature as a being of energy. But her mind was trapped in a hellish world of darkness and fear. A world crafted by Shift were Umar had no power and was a mortal woman running from the Wild Hunt of Celtic lore. Shift waved his appreciation to Domino who was folding up her recently returned rifle.

"So, jobs done then?" she asked.

"Almost. Dormammu may not be able to draw as much power from this place without his sister. But he can still draw quite a bit. To truly cut him off we'd need to raze the land. Destroy any magical constructions or temples."

"You'd need an army to do something like that."

"I was thinking more along the lines of a horde of monstrosoties. They have these laser shooting cyclopses sealed off under what's left of the mountain. Or I'd have to bring something here to do the razing."

"Bring something in. Definitely bring something in. One laser shooting cyclops is all the universe can handle." Domino was very insistent on that point.

"Alright, yeesh. Well, Yamata-no-Orochi still owes me a favor for getting his heads back." And from then on there were legends of a demon in a black cloak riding an 8 headed dragon and laying waste to the Dark Dimension.

Wraith telekinetically simultaneously pushed several buttons situated around his desk. A concealed drawer opened. Inside was a small box, about two inches by two inches by four inches. "Computer," said Wraith, "Body slide one to outside the Xavier Institute."

Wraith reappeared outside the gate of the Xavier Institute. Within moments weapons emplacements popped up and were ready to fire. "Identify yourself!" said a young woman's voice over a loud speaker.

"Authorization override, code 2937 Gamma," Wraith said, pronouncing carefully.

"Acknowledged, code expired," said a computerized voice.

"Is that you Jubilee?" asked Wraith, speaking into the intercom.

"Yeah, who is this?" No one starts an attack by controlling your defenses and then bothering to see who is home.

"This is Mr. Wraith. I need to talk to the Professor. May I come in?"

"Um…sure." Jubilee had already been in contact with the Professor since Wraith appeared. "He'll meet you in the lobby."

"Thank you, and I apologize for the entrance." Wraith began to walk, somewhat hurriedly towards the front door.

The Professor opened the door before he could even knock. "What is it, Mr. Wraith? Is something wrong?" The Professor eyed the armor and weapons Wraith was touting.

"Yes, quite a bit actually. I need to talk to you about Nathan Grey."

The Professor looked at him quizzically, but led him inside. "About your entrance…"

"Don't worry, Professor. The codes are one time use only, and I am the only one who knows them."

"Sometime when you are not so pressed, you'll have to tell me what else you have added to me school."

"Of course. And I apologize about not telling you about it." The Professor nodded, and guided Wraith further into the Mansion.

A few minutes later, the Professor telepathically summoned Nate into one of the studies. "What is it, Professor?" asked Nate.

The Professor had his fingers steepled. "Mr. Wraith has a proposition for you to consider."

Nate turned to the man leaning against the mantle, staring into the fireplace. The man stood upright and looked at him. "I need you as a backup plan, in case I fail at my task. In return for your help, and so you'll be able to be of use to me, I will give you back your powers."

Nate stopped in shock. He looked between the Professor and Wraith. "How?"

"Sorry, I can't tell you. I can't promise there won't be any side effects. I'm reasonably sure that it will work and not harm you, but there's no way to test it without doing it."

"I have not yet been disappointed by Mr. Wraith, Nate. If he says he thinks it will work, I believe him," said the Professor.

"What will I be up against?" asked Nate.

Wraith took a few steps closer. "A being of incredible magical powers. I may be able to get some allies for you, but I can't promise anything. If he attacks, you'll know it. Are you ready?"

Nate paused a moment, and then came to a decision. "Yes, I am."

"Good." Wraith came and stood next to him. He pulled out the rectangle again. "Goodbye Professor." He then looked at the box. "Computer, body slide two to New York hospital." He and Nate reappeared inside a building.

"Where are we?" asked Nate.

Wraith started walking to a doorway. "It's one of the superhero hospitals I run. You didn't think they got better so fast on their own did you?"

Nate followed him. Inside was a large spherical room. "This looks like Cerebro."

"It's an exact copy," said a man getting up from the control panel. "My name is Alec," he pointed to a golden skinned kid standing next to him, "and this is Elixir."

"Does Xavier know that you have this?" demanded Nate.

"No, but he does know that I have the schematics and that I won't be sharing them with anyone. It was built specifically for healing you, and it will be destroyed after we're done. Now, if you are ready?" Nate took a breath and nodded. "Good. Elixir will be fixing anything that may be wrong with you physically while Alec, with your help, fixes anything that maybe wrong telepathically." Alec nodded. "Alright. Then I'll leave you to it. I'll return soon." Wraith walked out of the room.

He took out the box. "Computer, transport to Earth-597, location Chicago." He disappeared, and reappeared in a bustling city, that happened to be covered in Nazis motifs. "I hate Illinois Nazis." He took off and began to fly at break neck speeds. Even with the world possibly ending, he did love to fly. But he also had to make this quick. He approached a fortress. "Computer, is target still there?"

"Affirmative."

"Notify me of any response to my presence."

"Acknowledged."

He came towards the gate without even slowing down. The foot thick adamantium doors were thrown clear over the building inside the walls, and broke through the walls on the opposite side of fortress. Wraith dove towards the ground just before hitting the building, and using his telekinesis burrowed a tunnel down forty feet. He broke through a vibranium wall and stepped into a prison cell block.

Inside alarms were blaring. A bald man in a Nazi uniform stood up from the chair he had been occupying in front of a cell. "Fool! You will be captured and experimented on too!" He touched a finger to his temple. The man beside him began to raise his hands which had the appearance of ice.

Wraith ignored them and made for the cell. A breath of a thought knocked them both across the room. "Sorry, Herr Xavier, this helmet stops your powers from working on me." The cell had been reinforced against telekinesis, but not from the outside. Still, it took Wraith a moment to open it. He offered a hand to the woman inside. "Come with me if you want to live."

"Who are you?" she said taking his hand.

"Assailants approaching," said the computer.

"No time, Ms. Grey. The Reichsmen are bound to be here any moment." Almost on cue, Nazis versions of Rogue, Banshee, Storm, Psylocke, and Havok apeared. Wraith looked at them, then spoke, "Computer, body slide two to base." They disappeared and reappeared in a sparsely furnished room.

"We should be safe for a while now," said Wraith.

"Where are we?" asked Jean looking around.

"It's a base I built. It's only a small, temporary one. It's more of a lookout post." He motioned for her to sit down on the only chair in the room.

"Who are you?"

"That's not really important. Do you want some food? There are some survival rations here. It's not real good, but it'll do."

She ignored him. "I have to know what's going on here."

He stopped on his way to the cabinets that lined one wall. "Very well. I need your help in a scheme of mine to save a world, not too unlike this one. In exchange, I will free this world from the Nazis."

She stared at him incredulously. "That's a bold offer. If you can do that, why would you need me?"

"You're counterpart on this world is dead, and she could cause quite the upset if I play this right. Having someone that looks like her and can mimic her powers would be very useful. But it is not necessary, so if you refuse it's alright. But you must know that the world as you know it will disappear. You will for all intents and purposes not belong to it anymore. If you refuse, I will leave you this base and its supplies. It's not much, but no one else knows about it. You could start a resistance from here."

"I accept." Wraith thought she would. "Almost anything would be worth it to get rid of this regime. How do we go about it?"

"We stop WWI, and put somebody competent with morals in charge." Jean raised an eyebrow.

They were standing in the lobby of the palace of Franz Joseph I in 1848. Jean was dressed in a green flowing evening gown. "How did you get us in here?" she whispered. Wraith shrugged. He still had his armor on. But he was bending the light around him to make it appear he was in a tuxedo matching the times.

A courtier came saying, "His majesty will see you now." Wraith tilted his head and followed the man. Jean had her arm locked through his. The courtier showed them to a drawing room and opened an exquisitely paneled wooden door. He bowed and motioned them to enter. Wraith and Jean passed through and the door was shut behind them. Jean curtsied and Wraith bowed from the waist while clicking his heels together. "Your majesty," they said in unison.

"Oh, please. Save that for the court," said the Emperor Franz Josef. "I've only been crowned a few days. "What was it you wanted to see me about? I only have a few moments between meetings."

Wraith smiled. The man was humble, while maintaining his position. He had already earned Wraith's respect. "Sir, I believe there are going to be some troubling times in the future. I would like to support your reign…"

The Emperor raised his hand and rose from his chair. "Stop, I will not accept bribes."

"I am not offering one. I ask for nothing." The Emperor's brow furrowed and he sat back down. He nodded for Wraith to continue. "I don't trust the other leaders throughout the world. You I do. You hold to the traditions of the Holy Roman Empire, the good traditions anyways. I want these to continue. I believe that you will continue to act honorably, in a way in accordance with God's teachings. I want to give you the means to do so. Austria's power is waning. Your neighbor's may be able to push you to do things that you would not. You don't want war. I think I can give you the ability to avoid it, or at least quickly and decisively win it."

"What are you offering?"

"I will give you three hundred thousand tons of gold, accurate counts of your neighbor's militaries, schematics for rapid fire rifles, and long range cannons. I have better designs for ships, decades ahead of what you have. I'm giving you the gold to make Austria a powerhouse of learning and respect to stop all others from pushing you. You can eliminate hunger and unemployment in your country. I would even suggest giving some to the Church so that Catholicism can regain some of its lost respect. Uniting the world under the Church would do well to limit wars. And in case the gold fails, you will have the military might to scare your neighbors into submission, or defend yourself if necessary."

"That much gold would destroy the economies of every nation across Europe, and all of Europe would unite to take it from me, if they knew about it."

"True," Wraith admitted. "But you don't have to release it all at once. You can do it slowly. Invest in schools. Pay for students to go to college. Teach the youth the truth about the destructive philosophies around the world. Don't oppress anyone, but only support the worthwhile groups. Educate people and perhaps Europe can be saved. By doing it slowly, no one will suspect how much there is." The Emperor seemed to be considering all of this. "In any case, sire, here are the plans and the locations of where the gold is stored. It is well hidden and should be secure until you want it." Wraith pulled out a folder from his jacket and handed to the Emperor. "With your leave, sir, we will go." Wraith looked at him expectantly.

The Emperor was quiet a moment. "Thank you. I will think over what you have offered me. I won't be seeing you again, will I?"

"If you do, sir, something has gone wrong. But no, I don't think you will."

"Very well, may God be with you."

"And with you as well, sir." Wraith knocked on the door and an attendant opened it. He and Jean left the palace.

"Do you think it worked?" asked Jean.

"I don't know." Wraith looked around to see if anyone was watching. "Let's find out." He pulled out the box. "Computer, extrapolate future events."

"Calculating. Austria becomes a major world power, surpassing even Russia. Italy's independence doesn't occur. The left wing extremists are defeated due to lack of support from the population. Austria's cultural influence affects Russia and communism never gets a firm hold. It eventually becomes a democracy. Much of the gold is given to the Catholic Church secretly over several decades. It is used to found universities around the world. Advances in food production limit hunger and poverty. Respect for the Catholic Church grows and much of the world becomes Catholic again. Austria is called in to mediate the fight between the North and South in the American Civil War. Formal war is short lived and both sides are able to come to a mutual consensus, restoring unity. Because of its cultural might, and military, Austria is able to defuse tensions in Europe before WWI occurs. No Versailles Treaty is signed, and Germany is never in a position to accept Nazism."

"So it worked," said Jean. Wraith nodded. "Why the Catholic Church?"

"It's the only faith that consistently teaches the same thing, so I can rely on it not to change over the centuries. Those teachings are morally acceptable and naturally stable in themselves, or else the Church wouldn't have lasted."

"How well did it work on your world?"

"I never said it was my world. And I never tried it. I don't like time travel. It can mess up too many things. You're better off making the right decisions in the first place. There are also few people in history that I would trust with that much gold. Hindsight is 20/20, but I can't use that for the people around me. So this plan doesn't work in the present day. I can only do what I can do. Ending world hunger and ignorance isn't an option. But I've stopped some of it."

"So what's next?"

"Next, I drop you off somewhere so that you can get into shape. You may need to fight. Prison will have softened your muscles." He turned to the box. "Computer, two to Home One."

They disappeared and reappeared inside the pocket dimension with Wraith's training facility. Wraith showed Jean to a room. "You can stay here. Everything is automated. Just ask a question out loud and the computer will answer it for you. There's a training facility here and food and sanitation stations in your room. Is there anything you need from me before I leave?"

"No, I don't think so. Wait, are there any clothes for me, and where are you going?"

"There's some clothes in the drawers, jeans, t-shirts and the like, as well as combat suits. Sorry, the sizes are probably a little off. I wasn't sure of your dimensions. Telling you where I was going wouldn't help you to understand. But hopefully I will be back. If not, well, this place should remain powered until you die of old age. If I fail, I'm not sure anyone will be back to pick you up. But the teleporter can send you back to your own world. It's a one way trip though." Jean nodded her understanding. "Goodbye, Ms. Grey." Wraith walked out. "Computer, Earth 907." He disappeared.

And reappeared outside a small house. He shifted the light around him to appear as normal man, dressed in blue jeans and a polo shirt. He stepped onto the porch and knocked on the door. A middle aged woman answered. "Yes?" she said.

"Hi, is Franklin home? My name is Mr. Wraith."

"He is. How do you know him?"

"We met awhile back. But I need to talk to him about his parents. I'll talk to him through the door, if that would make you more comfortable."

"Who are you? It's only been a few days since they died. He's not ready to talk about that yet." She started to close the door.

"They're not necessarily dead."

The door slowed down. "How can you say that?"

"Ms. Lawerence?" came a voice from inside. The door started to swing open of its own accord as the woman went towards a boy further in the house. Upon seeing the boy, Wraith allowed his façade down.

"Franklin, do you know this man?" She pointed to Wraith without turning towards him. The boy nodded.

"He helped get the space ship back to earth after…" he stopped.

"See," she said, and turned to Wraith, "he's not ready…" Her mouth hung open upon seeing Wraith in his black armor, a sword over one shoulder, a large gun over the other, and a war hammer on his hip.

"I need his help, madam. If he says no, I will leave. There's no need to be afraid. I'm not here to harm anyone." Wraith proceeded to sit down outside the door. The woman clutched at Franklin.

"It's okay," Franklin whispered. "He told me before he might come. I trust him." The woman stared at him.

"I need you to help me save a world. Your powers are indispensable to my plan, but you still must make the choice. In return, I will…" Wraith hated using this, but it was really the best thing he could do for the kid, "save your parents from being killed."

"My mom and dad? You can save them?"

Wraith nodded. "How dare you!" yelled the woman getting to her feet. "You can't make promises like that!"

Wraith raised a hand and she lost the ability to talk. "Madam, I can travel through time. You're not going to tell me that in this screwed up world of superpowered people, many of whom have died and come back multiple times, that you are going to say that it's impossible for this to be the case. I am a man of my word. I can save his parents. I would have already, but I've been busy saving other people. I don't like there being orphans in any world." He released her and she sank back to the floor.

"What do you need me to do?" asked the boy. Wraith smiled sadly at his bravery.

Wraith dropped Franklin back at the training complex and then returned to Earth 907. He went back in time. Mr. Fantastic was on trial for saving the life of Galactus. Wraith appeared in front of Galactus. The herald Nova was trying to convince Galactus to save Mr. Fantastic. He refused and ordered Nova to find him another world to devour. "You will save Mr. Fantastic," ordered Wraith.

"What flea dares to order me?"

"You will save Mr. Fantastic, Galactus. Or I will travel back in time and force him not to save you. Analyze me. You have the capability. Know the truth. I will keep my word. I am honorable. Are you?"

Galactus stared at Wraith like a mountain sizing up a grain of sand. Minutes passed. "Very well. There was a time when such things mattered to me. I will honor my debt to this human." He suddenly disappeared.

"Computer, extrapolate analyses."

"Galactus will keep his word. Mr. Fantastic will be saved. Sue Storm will not go on the mission to destroy the Shi'ar homeworld. The heroes of earth will be able to stop the invading alien army. This world will be brought to a comparable stability to that of Earth 616."

"Good. On to Earth 1030." All of this time and reality jumping was beginning to take its toll on Wraith. He needed a good night's rest and something to eat. But it would have to wait. There was still one more square of his chess board to fill. He appeared in New York City. He quickly disguised himself and entered a heavily fortified police department. There was a receptionist with orange skin and hair behind a metal wall. Wraith could just make her out through a small glass window. "Hi, I would like to talk to Nathan Summers, if at all possible. Is he available?"

She looked up at him. "Do you have an appointment?" Suddenly a two inch thick piece of metal covered the doorway he had just entered. The little window to the receptionist was covered, and alarm started to blare. Wraith sighed.

"Don't move intruder. And you might as well drop that shield. I can see right through it," came a voice through a speaker near the ceiling.

"Cable? Can we talk?" Wraith raised his hands and stopped disguising himself. He wasn't sure who would win between Cable and him. It would be…interesting.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"I am Mr. Wraith. I need your help."

"Get in line. There's a whole city that needs my help. A name doesn't tell me who you are."

"As for threat assessment, I'm a telekinetic approximately on par with you, although probably not as strong. The plasma rifle on my back you probably recognize. It's of the type that you carry, or at least do in the reality that I'm coming from. I've got a tech based version of Thor's hammer, and an Adamantium sword." He paused a moment. "Oh, and I also have a computer that allows me to teleport and travel through time."

"I'm not sure if I should arrest you or kick you out. I've got things to do."

"I can cure your Techno-Organic Virus."

"What?"

"I can cure you of your condition. You'll have full control of your powers. Just think of how much you can do with your telekinesis."

"That's not funny."

"It's true. How can I prove it to you?"

"You can't. Now get out, before I change my mind." The door opened to outside the station.

Wraith turned and looked at. "I really need your help. There's only one other version of you in the multiple realities that is a likely candidate. Will you please give me the benefit of the doubt?"

"Remove your helmet."

"What?"

"Remove your helmet so I can read your mind. It's what's shielding you, right?"

Wraith was silent. There was a lot in his mind, a lot of things that if they got out could hurt a lot of people. "Yes. It's a copy of Magneto's helmet. What do you want to know?"

"Everything. I want to know if you're telling the truth and who you are. You want me to trust you, but you won't trust me?"

Wraith gritted his teeth. He was worried it would come to this. Cable had less to gain from helping him and more to lose. "Fine." He took off his helmet. He felt the presence immediately. Cable probed without going that deep, but covered a lot of territory very quickly.

"It's not even your world. You're trying to find your original world. This world is only important to you because it's the center of the realities. You're not saving it because you care about it. You're saving it because you want to go home." Cable paused. "You want to see your wife and family."

Wraith's face was utterly dark. This was something he didn't even like to think about. But Cable was right. It was the reason for creating the dimensional teleporter. Earth 616 was the center of the realities for this side of the universe. He had traveled there from his home reality and gotten stuck. Now he was forced to randomly search through all of the realities until he found his way back. It was like drawing randomly from a deck of cards. The probability increased of finding the correct card which each one that is removed, but in this case, he had no idea how many cards there were. Searching from Earth 616 allowed him to know which cards he had already removed. It was easier to survey an area from the center than from an edge.

"That's not the only reason. I do care about the people there, but you're right. Mostly I just need it to exist so that I can go home." Emotion filled his voice. "You can appreciate that can't you? Losing everyone you know?" He choked up. "Heh," he laughed bitterly, "there aren't even other versions of me or my family in the other realities. I've looked."

A hidden door in the wall opened and Cable strode through. "What do you need?"

Wraith brought Jean Grey, Franklin Richards, and Cable to one of his hospitals. Elixir got to work curing Cable of his disease while Wraith explained the plan. Wraith got something to eat and then grabbed a couple of hours of sleep. He couldn't wait too long. He had no idea how long until Dormammu was ready.

He woke up and turned on the news. Scientists were stating that a large, burning object was approaching Earth at amazing speeds. It would make contact within the hour. The Hubble Telescope had images of it, a large orb hurtling through space. At the center was a speck of something else. Suddenly it accelerated. The voice was heard across the planet. "I AM PHOENIX!"

The Avengers were dispatched to stop her. It was over in moments. They were completely overwhelmed. Other heroes and villains attacked. The X-men, Doctor Doom, Excalibur, all were defeated. Beams of flame began to strike random places on the earth.

Wraith turned to Cable and Franklin. "How are we doing?"

"So far so good," said Cable. His eyes were closed. "The reality is holding. He is completely unused to this, but Jean and my telepathic abilities are stabilizing his reality warping powers."

"Good. Hopefully you won't have to maintain this long. Just hit those targets I mentioned."

"You got it."

Wraith got a secure line to Isaac. "Mr. Stephenson. You have the green light." Then Wraith teleported to outside the Sanctum Sanctorum. He had to make sure Dormammu didn't decide to rabbit in all the chaos. "I hope he enjoys the show," thought Wraith.

Wraith watched the updates filtering in from Isaac on his helmet. There was no sign of Shift. He had to hope that he was being successful.

"Did you really think that would work?"

Wraith automatically teleported 60 feet up. Behind him rose Dr. Strange, with a slight difference. Flames were coming out of his eyes. "Honestly, you mortals never cease to disappoint me. The Phoenix just happens to appear and begin to attack random places on earth, which just happen to coincide with the locations of my store houses." The slight smile disappeared. "I didn't appreciate that either. I wanted those artifacts." Then he turned smug again. "But really, I could sense that that Jean Grey was from another reality before she even entered the atmosphere." He paused. "Just like I can sense that you are not from this reality." He almost seemed to be sniffing the air. "You are an anomaly. You have been to hundreds…no, thousands of realities. I'd be curious as to why if you mattered. Wraith picked up paving stones from the walkway and threw them at him. They passed right through.

"Astral form. Right," said Wraith.

"I can't wait to see what you do next. And why do you bother with that sill disguise?"

Wraith ignored him. He decloaked. He had been bending the light around him to make him appear in business attire, as well as remove his shadow just in case Shift got ideas. But he actually was in full armor, with weapons attached all over. Wraith exhaled and closed his eyes. The Sanctum Sanctorum lurched.

The image of Dr. Strange didn't even move. It looked around. "What is it you're doing?" Then his eyes widened. "NO!"

Wraith smiled in spite of himself. For as much as he hated magic, he knew quite a bit about it, although he had no proficiency. Dormammu's possession spell required Strange's body to be on Earth. It was the anchor for the spell. Wraith had just picked up the entire building and grounds. They were already above the surrounding buildings and picking up speed.

"Summers! Frost! Deal with him. I need to fix this!" With that the image of Dr. Strange disappeared.

Cyclops and Emma Frost came hurrying out of a door. "Ah, at last. The two who let him in to our dimension in the first place. I knew Ms. Frost was involved, but you Mr. Summers? I knew you had terrible taste in women, but letting tyrannical energy beings into your dimension? That's a low move, even for you."

Cyclops touched a hand to his visor and a red bean struck Wraith. "Wait you fool!" called Emma. "If he loses focus on what he's doing we'll all fall to our deaths."

"Proving yet again that she wears the pants in your relationship. If you can call those pants. Tell me, Ms. Frost. Do you actually pull those on in the morning or just paint them on? They must bind." Wraith was trying to keep them off balance, but mostly he just really, really didn't like them.

"I'll take over his mind and then use him to set us back down," she told Cyclops telepathically. She turned to Wraith and touched a hand to her temple. She couldn't even sense him.

"The helmet is my own design. But I did base it off of Magneto's. It's completely telepathic proof. Oh, and here's an idea." Suddenly Cyclops turned towards Emma and shot a beam at her. She turned to her diamond form to protect herself. The beam splintered as it passed through her knocked out parts of the wall to the Sanctum.

"What are you doing?!" she yelled, before realizing that Wraith was controlling him. She turned to Wraith who was already going into the Sanctum. Cyclops was frozen in place and his beam was keeping her stuck as well. Dormammu was on his own.

Wraith found the main chamber. He made it just in time to watch a form emerge from Dr. Strange's body and coalesce itself into Dormammu. "No!" yelled Wraith.

"Oh, yes," said Dormammu and turning to Wraith, he fired a blast out of his hands. The Flames of the Faltine licked around Wraith's telekinetic shield. Wraith teleported around Dr. Strange's body.

"C'mon Dr. Strange. Now would be a really good time to help me."

Dormammu renewed his attack. "Fool, he can't help you. He is imprisoned in my dimension. By forcing me to summon my form before I was ready, you have only minorly inconvenienced me. I am not yet at full power, but I am more than enough to destroy you."

Wraith's shield began to shrink. "If you keep this up, I won't be able to keep the Sanctum aloft."

"Ha! It matters not to me. Physical damage can not harm me."

"Good to know." Wraith released his hold on the building. They had traveled several thousands of feet up. With his full attention now available he was able to reinforce his shield, but he still didn't have the energy to hold out against Dormammu for long, and he didn't want to find out what crashing into the Earth going several hundred miles an hour was going to feel like. "Wake up Strange! He shook him."

"I told you…" began Dormammu when Strange's eyes began to flicker open. "Impossible!"

"I think some changes have been going on in the Dark Dimension since you've been away."

His eyes hardened. "It doesn't matter. I drained Strange of his magic. He'll be powerless for hours."

He began attacking again when suddenly his flames stopped. "What?!" screeched Dormammu.

"Plan B then, or perhaps Plan Z6, is closer to the truth."

"I can't wait to see this. What are you going to do? Hit me with a stick? I am still more powerful than any sorcerer in this dimension, even without the Flames of Faltine."

"No, I thought I'd kick you out of our dimension."

Wraith pulled a knife from his belt. It changed shape in his hands and he attached it to his teleporter. He then dropped and rolled, taking Strange with him. He lowered his shield and using all his power hurled the knife and teleporter and Dormammu. He raised a shield, but the knife broke through it, carrying the teleporter with it.

"Good riddance," said Wraith, picking himself off the floor. He closed his eyes and slowed the decent of the Sanctum. He carefully put it back in place.

"That's only a temporary delay," said Strange pulling himself to his feet. "He can just…"

"FOOL!" roared Dormammu as he reappeared. "Dimension traveling is nothing to me!"

"I know." Wraith stepped towards him and hit him in the face with a hard right hook. He hit floor unconscious. "That's why I sent you back in time too, and time traveling drains your energy."

"So…what exactly did I miss?" asked Dr. Strange.

After a brief talk with Dr. Strange, Wraith collected Dormammu's body. He quickly sent it to another dimension. It was a prison he had designed for magic users. He walked outside the Sanctorum. Cyclops was still shooting Emma. "Make him stop, Wraith!" yelled Emma.

"How long can your diamond form hold out to this, Ms. Frost?" he asked, all business. She didn't respond. "I give it another half an hour at most."

"What do you want?"

"Why did you help Dormammu?" She was silent. "My patience is wearing thin…"

"We had no choice." Emma could sense him rolling his eyes even through the helmet without her telepathy.

"There's always a choice, Ms. Frost. Answer the question."

"Argh…he offered us control of the planet. We would control mutant kind, make it into whatever we wanted. He just wanted revenge on Strange and to remove all of the magic users."

"So that no one could oppose him. Of course." He turned to Dr. Strange as he came out of the Sanctorum. "I'll take her and Cyclops into custody until a trial can be set up."

Emma laughed. "You think any prison can hold us, especially me?"

Wraith turned to her. There was no emotion in his voice. "My prisons can."

Her laugh died in her throat. Few prisoners had ever gone to Wraith's prisons. It was part of his desire to stay secret. SHIELD would send prisoners who were known to escape to Wraith rather than the Raft or other "secure" facilities. They were never heard of again. No one knew what they were like. He didn't allow inspections. SHIELD took it on faith that the prisoners were alive, much less treated humanely.

Cyclops' eye beam suddenly turned off. He sank to the ground exhausted. A quick internal nudge from Wraith knocked him unconscious. He never looked away from Emma. She was still in her diamond form. "Change." She didn't. It was the last of her rebelliousness and pride that she had left. She didn't even have enough to speak. "Change or I will break you." She felt the pressure building, even on her diamond skin. After another moment's hesitation she changed back to her human form.

Almost before she had fully changed, Wraith knocked her unconscious as well. She fell to the ground. Wraith sent them to separate prisons. Then he went back to his building to wait for Isaac's report.

Suddenly a communication came through on his helmet's private channel. "Wraith," said a very authoritarian tone.

"Director Fury, how nice to hear from you. I see I need to hire better programmers. Those interns you have got through my firewall."

Fury ignored the comment. "I seem to recall you having a contingency plan involving worldwide attacks by the Phoenix." An image came up of the Jean Grey he had brought attacking the Earth. "This wouldn't happen to be your doing?"

"Yes," Wraith said bluntly.

Fury waited a moment for Wraith to explain. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me what's going on."

"Not entirely. You'll get the official report, plus a few more details in the morning, as per our agreement. Everything appears to be handled. The 'Phoenix' will be sent back to her world soon. There is nothing threatening Earth that I am aware of. Well, no imminent threat."

"I have your word on that?"

Wraith eyed Fury. He really believed in keeping his word. "You do."

"Alright. Keep me updated. We might have to meet again to go over any changes to your operations from the last time."

Wraith smiled. "I look forward to it."

For all of the iciness between them, Wraith and Fury had fair amount of mutual respect for one another. It was what allowed their relationship to work. Wraith kept Fury apprised of what he knew and was doing, and Fury generally turned a blind eye to his activities.

Wraith continued to wait in his office. He had actually fallen asleep in his chair when an alarm began to ring. His eyes snapped open. Video footage showed the asteroid prison where Dormammu was being held. It was under attack. Wraith's eyes flicked to Dormammu's cell. He was still asleep. Another camera had finally gotten a good image of the attacker. Wraith's eyes went wide in surprise. A bestial bellow ripped from his mouth. All the windows on his building broke. He regained his composure enough to stop them from landing on the people below. "COMPUTER!" he screamed. "PRISON 2653!"

"Acknowledged." He disappeared.

His secretary came running in with an impressive pistol in one hand, and two metal claws coming out of the other. There was also a claw coming out of each foot. With his team out on mission, she was his next line of defense. Seeing that the room was clear, she keyed for the security desk on her ear piece. "Report."

"We just lost every window on the building, but at least from what I'm seeing outside it landed in neat piles around the civilians."

"Was Mr. Wraith's camera on?" Wraith would turn it off sometimes when he needed to keep a meeting secret.

"Yes, he suddenly yelled something about a computer and a prison and then disappeared."

"Very good, thank you. Please sound the all clear." She holstered the pistol back on her ankle under her skirt, withdrew her blades into her hands, and calmly walked back to her desk. She began calling for glass replacement, while she silently said a prayer for Wraith. Wherever he was, he was on his own. They were out of allies.

He reappeared outside the now smoking ruin of the prison. He pushed himself as he rushed for the cell block. He could still hear the weapons emplacements attacking the intruder. He got to the cell just after he had entered. "Hello, Wraith," said a very cultured voice. The man it belonged to held Dormammu's still unconscious body.

"SAM!" The man dressed quite simply in jeans and a t-shirt. There was a shield stopping Wraith from entering the cell.

"Oh, quiet down. You're not still mad about leaving your home world, well, home dimension for that matter, are you?"

"You stole my life!"

Sam shook his head. "That was your own fault. You should never have followed me through that portal." He turned back to Dormammu."Now, I suggest you leave. It took me awhile to figure out a way to destroy an energy being, but then the idea of a bomb fueled by his energy occurred to me. The blast radius will eradicate the entire base, which I must apologize for. But soon you won't have need for them." He strapped a device to Dormammu's chest. "You have eight seconds." He disappeared through a portal after nodding goodbye to Wraith.

Wraith wasn't about to just let Dormammu die, but he had designed the shield himself. He would not be able to get through. "Aargh! Computer, back to base!"

"Acknowledged."

There was a giant explosion. All that was left was empty space and dust.


End file.
